The BBC’s four-part documentary marking the 20th anniversary of the 7/7 suicide bombings in London has a cast list of high-level political figures. There’s Tony Blair, who was at a G7 summit in Gleneagles with George Bush and Vladimir Putin on the day the bombers struck in July 2005. Sir Ian (now Lord) Blair, who was the Metropolitan Police commissioner at the time, also appears, along with Charles Clarke, then home secretary, and Eliza Manningham-Buller, head of MI5.
But it is the people on the ground, and on the Underground — the bereaved, the survivors, the police officers who put themselves in harm’s way, the witnesses who saw things they can never forget — who make 7/7: The London Bombings (BBC2) such a sombre and compelling watch.
Through their stories and recollections, I found myself carried back to the confusion of July 7, 2005 (the day after London celebrated being awarded the 2012 Olympic Games) and the intensity of the next few weeks, as Londoners expected and feared further attacks.
When that second wave came, with failed bomb attempts on July 21, it sparked a huge manhunt for the escaped bombers and a shoot-to-kill operation in which the young electrician Jean Charles de Menezes was gunned down by police who mistook him for a suicide terrorist.
The series covers all the events of that helter-skelter fortnight. It opened last with 7/7 itself, when three bombs on Tube trains and an explosion on a bus claimed 52 innocent lives and those of the four terrorists. The second episode continues with a detailed account from the police officers who were involved in finding and piecing together the fragments of evidence that led to the identification of the bombers and the discovery of a bomb factory in Leeds.
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Glen Hesketh, one of the first police officers on the scene of the bus bomb at Tavistock Square, recounts the horror of body parts and screaming (“God Almighty, the screaming”), the smell and the immediate realisation that this was not a road accident. Hesketh wondered, “Where do I start, what do I do?” before stepping into the carnage of the doubledecker to do whatever he could.
His confusion was mirrored at all levels. London Underground control room tapes show an initial reluctance to accept what was happening: “We don’t want to put out things like it’s an explosion.”
As it became clear the bangs were bombs, and not power surges or collisions, the accounts from below the streets became more remarkable. Antonio Silvestro, a British Transport Police constable, was the first rescuer to head into the tunnels at Aldgate and stayed with the lawyer Thelma Stober until she was stretchered out. Then he went home for a sleepless night.
The second episode carries incredibly powerful interviews with two of the policemen dispatched into the “hell” of the deep tunnels below Russell Square station (where 26 passengers were murdered), who made sure someone was present, day and night, with the deceased until their remains could be recovered.
The BBC2 series arrives seven months before the anniversary of the atrocities. The timing feels disconcerting and is driven above all by a desire to get ahead of the competition (there are several other 7/7 series in the pipeline). The programmes carry no great revelations, but they serve as a potent reminder of a terrifying time for London, and how the city and its people showed great courage, compassion, resourcefulness and resilience.
★★★★✰
